Munich, Germany — December 15: The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has urged U.S. authorities to halt the deportation of Guan Heng, a Chinese national whose covert 2020 recordings of internment sites in East Turkistan provided important visual evidence of abuses against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples.
WUC says Guan secretly filmed large detention compounds in 2020, producing rare footage that corroborated survivor testimony and investigative reporting into China’s mass detention campaign. His material was shared with journalists and researchers and helped inform public records of mass detention, including reporting by the BuzzFeed News team that later won a Pulitzer Prize.
After fleeing China, Guan traveled through multiple countries and arrived in the United States in 2021 seeking protection. He has lived openly in the U.S., held a valid work permit, and pursued an asylum claim. According to WUC, Guan is currently detained at Broome County Jail in New York and faces deportation not because his asylum claim was denied but because of the way he entered the country. Human Rights in China reports he is awaiting a New York court hearing scheduled for December 15.
WUC warned that returning Guan to China would likely expose him to serious reprisals — including imprisonment, torture, or enforced disappearance — because of his role documenting abuses and cooperating with international media. The organization said Chinese authorities have reportedly interrogated and harassed his family. Journalists, human rights groups, and China specialists have voiced alarm, warning that deporting a source like Guan would chill other whistleblowers and witnesses to mass atrocities.
The World Uyghur Congress called on U.S. officials to stop any removal proceedings and to ensure Guan’s asylum claim is fully and fairly reviewed in line with U.S. refugee law and non-refoulement obligations. WUC emphasized that Guan risked his life to expose crimes that the Chinese government sought to conceal and argued that, given the United States’ recognition of the Uyghur genocide, he must not be returned to a country where he faces persecution.
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